Electronic method and system for instant creation and storage of consumption histograms in drinkable water tapping points

1. An electronic system and assembly adapted for instantly and continuously creating, updating and storing flowrate histograms and time-of-use histograms of water consumption in situ without the need for any external auxiliary computing system, at a water outlet from a water pipeline, and for providing a profile on how water has been used during a lapsed service life of a water meter, said system and assembly comprising: a Meter Interface Unit (UIM) connected to the water meter ( 1 ) for conditioning and filtering pulses produced by the water meter, each of said pulses corresponding to a predetermined unit volume of water passing through the water meter; a control unit ( 3 ) connected to the water meter for making measurements and calculations using the pulses and for generating histograms of water consumption, said control unit configure to: receive the pulses from said water meter, measure the length of time between each of the pulses and determine an instantaneous flow rate of a corresponding volume of water passing through the water meter, and increase by one unit a frequency counter associated with a corresponding pre-set flowrate range of a plurality of pre-set flow rate ranges, every time a pulse is received, and to create a lapsed service life flowrate histogram of the meter; and determine the time of day that each pulse is received and increase a volume frequency counter associated with a corresponding predetermined time of day range of a plurality of time of day ranges by one unit volume by adding to the number of pulses received in previous days in each predetermined time of day range, and create a lapsed service life time-of-use histogram of the meter; wherein the resulting flow rate histogram and time-of-use histogram are independent data series of values stored in a memory of said control unit, said control unit having previously been programmed with the limits of flow-rate and time-of-use intervals, said flow rate and time-of use intervals having each an associated register acting as a counter for storing the amount of pulses that occurred within each said interval.

2. The system in claim 1 , wherein said control unit is configured to determine the total volume of water measured during the lapsed service life of the meter by the sum of “n” pulses of either histogram.

3. The system in claim 1 , in which said control unit has a memory capacity to create, update and store said histograms of consumption throughout the service life of the meter.

4. The system in claim 1 , wherein said control unit is configured to determine lapsed service life histograms of consumption by retrieving an independent series of frequency counters associated with the flow rate histogram and time of use histogram without further external data processing.

5. The system in claim 1 , wherein interval limits of said histograms of consumption are configurable by a Utility.

6. An electronic system and assembly configured to instantaneously and continuously create, update and store histograms of water consumption at a water outlet from a water pipeline in situ to produce a profile of how water is consumed during a lapsed service life of a meter, without the need for an auxiliary computing system, said system comprising: a Meter Interface Unit (UIM) connected to a water meter for receiving pulses from a water meter adapted for producing pulses corresponding to a predetermined unit volume of water and conditioning and filtering the pulses; a control unit configured to receive said pulses from said meter interface unit and water meter, said control unit configured to calculate a number of pulses received within each of a plurality of predetermined time intervals during each day for a number of days and to calculate a water consumption histogram based on the total number of pulses within each predetermined time interval for said number of days corresponding to the total volume of water consumed during each of said time intervals; said control unit further configured to continuously calculate a flow rate histogram by measuring the time lapse between each of said pulses and calculate a flow rate measurement between each pulse and to accumulate a total number of water volume units for each of a plurality of predetermined flow rate ranges to produce said flow rate histogram, and said control unit having a memory unit for storing said time of use histogram and said flow rate histogram.

7. An electronic system and apparatus configured to instantaneously and continuously create, update and store histograms of water consumption at a water outlet, said system comprising: a meter interface unit connected to a water meter, said water meter producing a pulse corresponding to a volume unit of water, said meter interface unit configured to receive said pulses and filter and condition said pulses; and a control unit configured for receiving said pulses from said meter interface unit, said control unit having a counter corresponding to each of a plurality of predetermined time intervals during the day, each said counter configured to continuously count the number of pulses received during each corresponding predetermined time interval for a number of days and to produce a time of use histogram corresponding to the total volume of water consumed during each of said predetermined time intervals over said number of days, and to determine the total volume of water consumed over said number of days, said control unit further configured to continuously measure the time lapse between each pulse and determine the flow rate for each volume unit passing through the water meter, said control unit having a frequency counter corresponding to each of a plurality of predetermined flow rate ranges, each said counter configured for counting said volume units flowing at a flow rate value within the respective predetermined flow rate range, over said number of days, and to produce a flow rate of use histogram based on the total volume units of water flowing within said flow rate ranges over said number of days; and a memory unit for storing said time of use of histogram and flow rate of use histogram.